South Africa’s Solidarity union to agree wage deal with Eskom

South African mining output rebounded strongly in April, rising by 12.4% year-on-year, after contracting 1.4% in the previous month, a report by Statistics South Africa showed on Thursday. Year-to-date production increased by 5.2%, on the back of surging output of nickel, manganese, platinum group metals and copper but gold production continued to lag, only managing a 1.5% increase. Analysts warned that the outlook for the rest of year was clouded by scheduled wage negotiations across the industry that could lead to strikes and a strong currency which hampers competitiveness.

South Africa's National Union of Mineworkers' central committee on Wednesday backed the country's Freedom Charter clause on nationalization and the ruling ANC party's resolution of 2010 to look at a greater role for the state in the economy. NUM is the largest union and represents the majority of workers in South Africa's mining industry. Through its affiliation with the Congress of South African Trade Unions it is also part of the country's ruling alliance, which next year will make a formal decision on the nationalization of the resource sector, long the bedrock of the African nation's economy.

Zimbabwe's Newsday reports the National Mine Workers’ Union has complained about the working conditions at Chinese-owned chrome and gold mines dotted around the Midlands region, saying they were inhuman and unsafe. At a meeting to commemorate the death of 427 Hwange miners at the Kamandama underground mine in 1972, national organising secretary Cotten Ndlovu said miners at Chinese-run companies were being forced to work long hours without incentives and protective clothing and accused Chinese mining firms of flouting the country’s labour laws.

Oil sands mining are not typically associated with Africa and the continent's two mega-projects, one in the Congo Basin and another on the island of Madagascar, are running into trouble. The $3bn deal between the Republic of Congo and Eni, Italy's state-owned oil major, runs out this year amid criticism about its lack of transparency and environmental impact. In Madagascar, the partner of France's Total, Madagascar Oil declared a force majeur after the Malagasy government apparently threatened to seize one of the London-listed company's oil fields.

The board of Botswana Diamonds (AIM: BOD) is pleased to announce that its geologists have identified sequences of sedimentary rock layers in several localities in the east of its Cameroon diamond licence. These layers include a distinct conglomerate horizon, which is geologically correlated with the paleo-conglomerate that C&K Mining has identified as being diamondiferous.

African Barrick Gold said it was not aware of plans by the Tanzanian government to impose a "super tax" on mining profits, responding to reports that the country could introduce a windfall levy. Worries over the tax helped drag the miner's shares down 7.8 percent by 1125 GMT, underperforming a sector battered by fresh concerns over the economic recovery.

The first of Sandvik’s revolutionary new DPi Series surface top hammer drill rigs - the biggest top hammer of its kind in Africa - has been commissioned at Independent Quarries in East London, South Africa and two more are on order. The intelligent self-propelled, self-contained crawler has been introduced to meet the rigorous demands of production drilling, quarry and mine development, pre-splitting and dewatering. There are already 15 DPi rigs operating in other parts of the world.“The new DPi Series reflects 20 years of experience in quarrying and open pit mining in the hole range of 76 to 152 mm, drilling deeper holes more accurately than ever before,” Cornel Burger, Sandvik’s General Manager Operations & Construction, says. The machine’s 33 kW rock drill is now the biggest available on the market.

Construction activities have reached peak intensity on the 34-month Maxi Heap Leach Pad project for French nuclear company AREVA at its Trekkopje uranium mine in Namibia, which will feature in IM’s July issue. The Trekkopje JV, comprising Concor Roads & Earthworks as lead partner, together with Grinaker-LTA and Basil Read, reports that it has been consistently achieving its present productivity targets on what is a complicated project that requires precision planning and programme scheduling.

First Uranium announced total gold sales for its financial year ended March 31, 2011 ("FY 2011") of 142,630 ounces of gold, which is a significant increase over the 91,657 ounces sold at the end of March 31, 2010. The Company's consolidated revenue of $172 million for FY 2011, an increase of 86% from $93 million in revenue for FY 2010, resulted in the Company reflecting a $20 million gross profit margin from operations in FY 2011 compared to a loss of $18 million in FY 2010. Remembering that First Uranium remains in a capital development and growth phase, the consolidated pre-tax loss for the year was $76 million, which is a 19% improvement over the pre-tax loss of $94 million in FY 2010.